צָחַק tsâchaq — to laugh outright (in merriment or scorn)
Translated in the KJV as laugh, mock, play, make sport.
a primitive root; to laugh outright (in merriment or scorn); by implication, to sport.
tsâchaq in each stem
Pi'el
Participle (active) 3Infinitive construct 3Wayyiqtol 1
And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in law.
And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking.
And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife.
Qal (Pa'al)
Perfect (qatal) 3Wayyiqtol 2Imperfect (yiqtol) 1
Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?
Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?
And the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old?
What the stems mean
A Hebrew verb is its root letters set into a pattern. The pattern — the binyan — is the grammar's way of saying three things at once: whether the action is simple, intensive or causative, and whether its subject is active, passive or reflexive. That is why one Hebrew word can need six English ones. All seven binyanim, explained ›